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Career, Job, Employment InformationBrand YOU(r) --7 Steps to Cultivate Your Brand and Bring Out
by:
Eric Gelb
Have you ever detected
that several folk exhibit a special or unusual quality, trait, or characteristic? And this feature or mark identifies the person and draws you to those people?
This is a 'brand.' And it is instrumental in small indefinite amount you build your business and advance your career. Here are seven (7) private secret ingredients to help you develop your own personal brand.
1. Assess Your Strengths and Key Competencies
What separates you and your business from the pack?
--The value you provide?
--Your unique experience and insight into the marketplace?
--Your ability to solve customers' problems?
--Reliability: Your ability to deliver on your promise?
--Your client service?
--The purchase experience?
Make a list of your key standout qualities and expertise.
2. Study Your Market to Determine Which Benefits are Most Important to Your Target Customers
For example, consider the homeowner who buys a 1/4-inch drill; doesn't he actually want a 1/4-inch hole?
--What benefits do your customers value most?
--Which do they actively and smartly
seek?
Review major trade publications and search the Web for news and trends just about your market and your client base. Survey your customers to gather data.
Compile your findings in a list.
3. Compare Your Lists from Steps #1 and #2 Above and Circle the Matches From The Two Lists
When the benefits you offer match your target market's key wants, you have the Highest probability
of becoming a 'call brand.'
This means your customers request your products and services by name.
Then you'll grow your business, especially repeat business.
Make sure your talents serve your market. And be sure to cultivate the talents and skills your market seeks but which you lack. In a free market, the buyers' of necessity
and wants overpower the sellers' individual strengths; this is because the 'Market Drives All.'
For example, you could be the world's top 'Blue Widget-maker' but if no one buys Blue Widgets you'll starve.
4. Choice The Top One or Two Benefits from Your List and Position Them As The Cornerstone of Your Brand
Many marketers call your key benefits and the way in which you structure your offering a 'Unique Commercialism Proposition' or 'USP.'
USP encompasses your special attributes, features and Talents--those particular qualities and traits that do you special and separate you from your competition. The private secret to building your brand and your business is to define your USP and organize your offering about your USP, which then becomes your brand.
5. Bring Your Special Qualifications and Kernels into the Limelight with a Tagline
In else words, promote your USP & Your Brand to your market.
Give Yourself a Nickname and Name Your Products and Services!
--A nickname, tagline or slogan, similar to a newspaper headline, helps you stand out and position your offering in your marketplace...
--Make sure your name is memorable--pleasing to the ears.
Over the years, I've accumulated several select nicknames: 'The Sick
Accountant,' 'Revenue Generation Specialist,' and 'The Gelberator' to name a few.
Given my past activity experience as a CPA, you can guess how The 1st nickname began. As a marketing expert and copywriter, one client presented
the second name. And one of my attorneys spawned number three based on my surname; 'Gelberator' sounds like an automobile's accelerator, and that meshes nicely with my goal of wanting folk to think of me as a motivator.
Perhaps much important, a brand name or tagline does you [more] unforgettable
with your target customers and does you stand out from your competitors.
6. Create a Domain Name (URL) that Highlights Your Brand
To establish our brand, we purchased the domain www.PublishingGold.com. To promote our brand and present a consistent image, we renamed our copywriting and marketing firm PublishingGold.com, Inc.
Our institution name, including the '.com' appears on our business cards, publications, e-mail name files, etc., which lure folk to our Site.
Create a matching e-mail address, for example, Eric@PublishingGold.com
These plan of action reinforce your brand and its identity and signal a professional and consistent image.
7. Feature Your Brand Name On ALL Your Materials, and Promote Your Brand Actively and Vigorously, 24/7
Broadcast your unique offering--your USP--to your target market. Do your target customers aware of The Benefits they wish get once
they do a purchase from You; this strategy entices buyers to purchase from you rather than the peoples next-door.
Publicize your offering. In else words, 'Get the Word Out.' Write articles and special reports; get media coverage (not advertising); and organize workshops to present on your area of expertise--your unique brand.
Call attention to yourself and your offering whenever and where
you can. Position yourself squarely before your [target] customers' eyes so they can't miss your offer and they are compelled to do a purchase. Be consistent and persistent. Then you wish actually do Your mark in your marketplace.
.
What steps can you take to develop your unique brand to catapult your business into overdrive?
Even a small yet novel approach, special trait, or standout quality wish help you create your own distinctive brand, which in turn wish set you ablaze in your marketplace. Then you'll truly multiply your business fivefold, tenfold, or more.
Just just about the author:
Eric Gelb, MBA & CPA, is a copywriter, brand management consultant, and editor of the Business enterprise Gold e-zine.
T: 516.374.1387 or Eric@PublishingGold.com
http://PublishingGold.com
Copyright © 2005 PublishingGold.com, Inc.
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